The concave slope
Sitting on the tilted paving looking up at the tower.
Mark Sehnert โ Public domain ยท ะะฒะปะฐัะตะฝะบะพ โ CC BY-SA 3.0 ยท Holger Uwe Schmitt โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Holger Uwe Schmitt โ CC BY-SA 4.0
**A shell-shaped square sloping inward, divided into nine sectors, where a horse race is run twice every summer** โ one of the great squares of Europe. โ **Its shape is not decorative**: the square is **concave like a fan**, falling from its rim to a single point in front of the **Palazzo Pubblico** โ **a drainage system** gathering all the square's rainwater into one channel. โ **The paving is divided by nine marble lines** into **nine sectors** โ commemorating the **Council of Nine**, Siena's government in its golden age (1287โ1355). โ **Around it**: the **Palazzo Pubblico** with the Torre del Mangia, the carved **Fonte Gaia**, and **14th-century palaces** with harmonised fronts. โ **And twice each summer โ 2 July and 16 August โ it becomes the racetrack of the Palio.**
Sitting on the tilted paving looking up at the tower.
A carved marble fountain at the square's upper rim.
Fourteenth-century palaces with harmonised windows around the square.
Piazza del Campo, 53100 Siena, Italy
**A centuries-old horse race between the city's districts โ not a tourist show but a deadly serious local matter.** โ **What it is**: a race in which **ten horses** run three laps of the rim of Piazza del Campo **on earth laid down for the purpose** โ **and it lasts about ninety seconds**. โ **The competitors are the city's districts**: Siena is divided into **seventeen contrade** โ historic wards each with **an animal name, an emblem, colours, a church, a museum and an anthem**; **you belong to yours by birth, for life**. **The rivalries and alliances between them are real and old.** โ **The two dates**: **2 July** and **16 August** each year. โ **The practical reality**: **standing in the centre of the square is free** โ but it means **being packed in for hours under the sun with no way out, no water and no toilets**; **seats and balconies overlooking it sell for large sums and are booked months ahead**. โ **The whole city is full** and prices doubled. โ **The celebration runs for days** beforehand: processions, trial races and communal street dinners. โ **The decision**: **if you want to see it, plan months ahead**; **and if you want a quiet Siena, avoid those two weeks entirely**.
**Seventeen historic wards that still organise social life in Siena โ not merely neighbourhood names.** โ **What they are**: Siena is divided into **17 contrade**, **each with an animal or emblem name**: the Shell, the Tortoise, the Giraffe, the Eagle, the Goose, the Caterpillar, the Unicorn, the Tower, the Forest, the She-Wolf, the Panther, the Dragon, and others. โ **How you see them**: **flags, lamps and emblems on the walls** of every lane, **a small baptismal fountain** for each contrada, **and colours painted on the kerbs** โ **so the flags tell you which contrada you are walking through**. โ **What they mean to their people**: **membership by birth, for life**, unchanged by moving away. **Each has its own church and museum** (displaying the banners of its Palio victories), **its council and its communal dinners**; **and its children are baptised at its fountain**. โ **The rivalry is serious**: each contrada has **a historic enemy** โ and losing to them is worse than not winning. โ **What it means for a visitor**: **the flags you see are not tourist decoration** โ **they are identity**; and respecting that is part of understanding the city.
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